BOOK II. 



FLOWERS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES. 



881 



617 



SUBSECT. 5. Species and Varieties of Half-hardy Annual Border- Flowers. 



6512. HALF-HARDY ANNUAL BORDER-FLOWERS, FLOWERING 

 IN JULY, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER. 



6513. Propagation and culture of half-hardy annual flowers. These are raised from seed, which is sown 

 in March in a not-bed ; and the plants, when an inch or two high, are transplanted into another bed of 

 very moderate temperature. Here they may remain till the middle of May, or till all danger from frosty 

 nights is over, and be then transplanted to where they are to flower in the borders, and treated in all 

 respects as hardy annuals. 



6514. To save seed. In dry seasons, most sorts will ripen seeds, if permitted, but in wet seasons, unless 

 the plants have been well forwarded in spring, and planted in a dry soil and warm situation, the seed will 

 not be matured. In such cases, a hand-glass supported over the flower is of use ; or some may be re- 

 moved with balls into large pots, and placed in an airy pit, frame, or green-house. In the northern and 

 western counties, where the climate is cold and moist, half-hardy annuals never ripen their seeds in any 

 year j and supplies are therefore annually obtained from the London seedsmen. 



SECT. III. Floiversfor particular Purposes. 



6515. The particular purposes to which flowers are sometimes applied, may be either the concealment 

 of local defects, or the production of local beauties. Among the former may be classed, covering naked 

 walls, posts, parts of ruins, or other upright objects ; concealing horizontal defects, as naked sub-barren 

 spots, unsightly banks, &c., producing vegetation under the shade and drip of trees : among the latter, 

 ornamenting water with flowering plants ; ornamenting rocks, or assemblages of stones formed in imitation of 

 rocks ; preserving a green appearance on beds or borders during winter ; forming edgings to beds or 

 borders ; furnishing odors ; and presenting botanical, curious, and scientific assemblages. 



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